Does the PMS handle both GST 5% and GST 18% on hotel rooms?

Yes. The PMS applies the current GST slabs automatically: 5% for room tariff up to Rs 7,500 per night (no input tax credit), and 18% for tariff above Rs 7,500 per night (with ITC). These rates are effective from 22 September 2025. Where it applies to your property, the correct slab is applied at billing.

Can I see walk-in, phone and OTA bookings together in one calendar?

Yes. The booking calendar shows all reservations together: walk-ins entered at the front desk, phone bookings, direct bookings, and OTA bookings (if you use the channel manager add-on to push them in). You have one view for all booking sources.

Do I need a channel manager, or is the free PMS enough?

It depends on how many OTAs you are on. If you are starting out or only on one platform, you can update availability manually on the OTA extranet and enter bookings by hand into the PMS. Once you are on three or more OTAs and updating rates frequently, the channel manager add-on becomes worth it: it syncs availability and rates in real time and removes the double-booking risk.

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Free to Use

Free Hotel Software for Small Hotels in India

You have 10 to 30 rooms, bookings coming in from MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Booking.com, and a front desk still running on a register or a spreadsheet. OnlineHotelier PMS brings everything into one screen at no cost. No subscription, no trial. Sign up yourself or message us on WhatsApp.

Quick Answer

OnlineHotelier PMS is free small hotel management software for independent hotels in India. It manages reservations, room status, housekeeping, guest check-in and check-out, folio and billing, GST invoices, and daily reports at no cost. The optional paid add-on is the channel manager (software that syncs your availability to MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Booking.com in real time). Everything else is free.

What the software does for a small hotel

Running a small hotel means your front desk does everything: checking guests in, taking phone bookings, posting charges to bills, and updating OTA availability by hand on each platform's extranet. That last part alone can take 30 minutes every morning and still result in a double booking.

The OnlineHotelier PMS puts reservations, room status, housekeeping, billing, and GST invoices in one place. It runs in any web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install, no server to manage.

Most commercial hotel software in India charges ₹1,500 to ₹4,000 per month. This is free. The only paid option is the channel manager add-on, which is covered separately below.

Reservations and booking calendar

See every room, every night, in one view. Add walk-ins, phone bookings, and direct bookings. Avoid double-bookings across your room types.

Room status and housekeeping

Track which rooms are occupied, vacant, dirty, or under maintenance. Housekeeping updates room status after each clean. Front desk sees the update in real time.

Guest check-in and check-out

Record guest details at check-in, assign rooms, and capture ID as required. Check guests out and generate the final bill in one step.

Folio and billing

Post room charges and additional services to a guest's folio. Review the full bill before check-out and settle it in one click.

GST invoices

Generate compliant GST invoices at billing. The system applies the correct slab where it applies to your property: 5% for tariff up to ₹7,500 per night, and 18% above ₹7,500 (effective 22 September 2025).

Daily reports

Occupancy, ADR (average daily rate) and revenue for the day. Your manager gets the morning flash report without building it manually.

OnlineHotelier PMS front desk calendar showing rooms by night, bookings, occupancy and room rates for a small hotel — The OnlineHotelier PMS front desk calendar: every room, every night, with booking source, room status and daily occupancy.

Walk-ins, phone bookings and OTAs in one calendar

The frustration at most small hotels is scattered bookings. A walk-in goes in the register. A phone booking is on a sticky note. An MMT booking is in the MMT extranet. And somewhere in that mess, a room gets double-booked.

The PMS booking calendar holds all your reservations in one place:

Walk-ins: entered at the front desk directly.
Phone bookings: entered manually like a walk-in, but with a future arrival date.
Direct bookings: if you use the free OnlineHotelier booking engine on your own website, those bookings feed straight into the calendar.
OTA bookings: MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com and others appear automatically when you use the channel manager add-on. Without the channel manager, you enter them by hand.

One view, all booking sources. No cross-referencing three systems to know which rooms are free tonight.

Direct booking is a channel too. Many small hotels treat direct booking as an afterthought. It is the highest-margin channel you have: no commission, no OTA dependency. The free OnlineHotelier booking engine lets guests book directly from your website and pay by UPI. Bookings appear in your PMS calendar like any other reservation.

GST invoices for small hotels

GST on hotel accommodation changed on 22 September 2025 (56th GST Council). Two slabs now apply, based on the actual room tariff charged:

Room tariff per night	GST rate	Input tax credit
Up to ₹7,500	5%	Not available
Above ₹7,500	18%	Available

The PMS applies the correct slab automatically at billing, where it applies to your property. The old 0% and 12% slabs no longer exist. See the full rules in our guide to GST on hotel rooms.

The GST slab is based on the actual tariff charged, not a declared tariff. The declared tariff concept was removed from 1 April 2025. If you give a discount and charge ₹6,000 on a room listed at ₹8,000, the slab is 5% (based on what you actually charged).

Housekeeping and room status

At a small hotel, the front desk usually manages housekeeping too. The PMS gives both a live view of room status.

Housekeeping marks a room dirty after a check-out.
Once cleaned, the room is updated to clean or inspected.
Front desk sees the update immediately and knows which rooms are ready to assign.
Maintenance holds are visible in the same calendar so rooms under repair do not get assigned.

No more calling housekeeping to find out if room 101 is ready. The status is live in the system.

Channel manager: the optional paid add-on

The core PMS is free. The channel manager is a paid add-on. This section explains the difference honestly so you can decide what your hotel actually needs.

A channel manager connects your PMS to OTAs in real time. When a booking comes in on MakeMyTrip, your availability updates on Goibibo and Booking.com in seconds. When you change your rate, it updates everywhere at once. Without it, you do that manually on each OTA's extranet.

Feature	Free PMS	Channel manager add-on (paid)
Reservations and booking calendar	Included
Room status and housekeeping	Included
Check-in, check-out, guest profiles	Included
Folio, billing and GST invoices	Included
Daily reports	Included
Automatic OTA availability sync (MMT, Goibibo, Booking.com)		Add-on
Real-time rate updates across OTAs		Add-on
Revenue management guidance from the OnlineHotelier team		Included with add-on

When you should consider the add-on: you are on three or more OTAs, you change rates frequently, or you have had a double-booking because of a manual update lag. Read our guide to hotel channel managers for the full picture before deciding.

Channel Manager Pricing

Ask us what the channel manager costs for your property

Pricing depends on your number of rooms and OTA mix. Message us on WhatsApp and we will give you a straight answer.

Ask on WhatsApp

Related Tools and Guides

Service

OnlineHotelier PMS

The full PMS overview: all features, who it is for, and how to get started.

Guide

Hotel Channel Manager Guide

How a channel manager syncs your rooms across all OTAs in real time.

Guide

GST on Hotel Rooms

Current GST slabs for hotels in India, with worked examples and ITC rules.

Free Tool

OTA Commission Calculator

See how much MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Booking.com take from each booking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The core PMS is free regardless of room count. There is no subscription, no trial period, and no room-count limit on the free tier. The only paid option is the channel manager add-on, which connects your PMS to OTAs like MakeMyTrip and Booking.com.

Yes. The PMS applies the current GST slabs automatically at billing, where they apply to your property: 5% for room tariff up to ₹7,500 per night (no input tax credit), and 18% for tariff above ₹7,500 per night (ITC allowed). These rates are effective from 22 September 2025. The old 0% and 12% slabs no longer apply.

Yes. The booking calendar shows all reservations in one view: walk-ins and phone bookings entered at the front desk, direct bookings from your website, and OTA bookings from MakeMyTrip, Goibibo or Booking.com (if you use the channel manager add-on to sync them). Without the channel manager, OTA bookings are entered by hand but still appear in the same calendar.

It depends on how many OTAs you are on and how often you change rates. If you are starting out or only on one platform, managing availability manually is workable. Once you are on three or more OTAs and updating rates regularly, the channel manager add-on becomes worth it. It removes the double-booking risk and saves the daily manual update. Read our channel manager guide for more detail before deciding.